Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Wow, that is a long title! Picked this up at Target while visiting family but my local one doesn't seem to have it. I have gotten TIE fighter poly bags before but this one seems a bit different. Let's see what is inside?

Can you build some sort of creation right away? I was not able to. I tried to build a ship and well...I didn't like it enough to call it a ship. You might be able to field the TIE as is in Intercept Orbit but I just don't think it will work. It would look odd and your real mounting points would be the side panels? No, no build for -5 points.

Parts 1 - plates

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.$3.99 / 41 = $0.10 per part breaking even for 0 points!

Parts 2

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?Yes, very much some good parts for frame building, maybe even space ships. Love the 'cockpit glass' piece. Wish the TIE Prototype had that one. +5 points.

The Set 1

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?So here it get's tricky, there is stuff for building the core of a frame but nothing past that. About a quarter of the bag is the big plates then you have all those round plates. I am going to have to give this one a -5.

The Set 2

Total: B- set, decent price for parts but not a lot of useful parts for common builds. Though on the other hand I love the set itself. I wonder how much it would cost to get a bunch of the printed clear pieces in this set from Bricklink?

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Here are my thoughts on the first book of the The End of the World RPG series: Zombie Apocalypse by Fantasy Flight games. 143 pages. 21 pages for character creation and the rules. The game's intent is for players to play themselves, in their home town starting with the stuff they own/is around them.

Of course going with fictional characters is ok too and very much suggests the group does one or the other.

Even with fictional characters you are not playing heroes, you are suppose to be regular people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. The system is certainly is light and narrative but drives the sense of...realism or regular joes with a 'triple damage system'.

What I mean is beside taking to your body, your mind and faith in humanity is also on the line to take damage leaning to your demise be it death, insane or a whimpering mess as you see everyone as just monsters.

7 pages for Game Masters (GMs) about getting into the system a bit more, about running the game, advancement and other advice.

90 pages for 5 scenarios to entertain your friends with. Each one provides a frame work to put your city in with different NPCs, set-ups and varieties of zombies to discover.

It is certainly an interesting take on where to take RPGs and I look forward to trying this game out and collecting the other books as the books. Wrath of the Gods is already out, Alien Invasion is on its way and the final one is Revolt of the Machines.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

I picked this two sets up from Brickloot.com (BrickLoot is one of those box subscription services focused around LEGO. You can check out my reviews here.) when they were having a sale on polybags. I figure these might be a nice way to build up a fleet for Intercept Orbit as I want to have a few small fleets to be able to do demos. The funny thing here is the Republic Frigate (Top) is smaller then the Cruiser (Bottom) in Star Wars: Clone Wars. Moving on, Let's get onto the reviews; starting with the Frigate.

The Bag

Can you build some sort of creation right away?

Well I just built the ship intended but I think it serves as a decent starting point for someone to get into the game but we don't have any systems really so I will only give a score of 0 points.

Top View

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.

$4.99 / $0.11 per part going over the Golden Ratio for -10 points!

Parts 1

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?

There are certainly some useful parts off the bat for building frames or ships. +5 points.

Parts 2

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?

So this is where things start getting fuzzy. For Frame building exclusively I would say no but what about ships which are some what there on beasts when it comes to builds. So for Rapid Attack no; Intercept Orbit: yes? (-5/+5)

Not as 'tall' but almost as long. Capital Ship Potential?

Total: Rapid Attack C+; Intercept Orbit B. For a ship in the bag with no systems this isn't to bad but not the greats but mind you it only 1 cent over the ratio.

Alright, let's look over the Cruiser.

The Bag

Can you build some sort of creation right away?

Again I just built the ship set itself but I don't see a frame in the set either and no systems so going to go with 0 points for this set as well.

Parts 1

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.

$3.99 / 41 parts = $0.10 breaking even for 0 points.

Parts 2

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?

There are certainly some useful parts. +5 points

Possible Frigate?

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?

Hmm, so this one sort of has the same problem but still leans hard to a general no to my gut...so will give a -5.

Total: B, so a tie between the two sets and I have to say what I said above pretty much applies to this one as well; a nice little base to get started with.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

So it was announcement a bit ago we are going to get a new Star Trek series and today in my random thoughts I started thinking about LGBT+ characters (with a bit of a focus on the T) and posted them on Twitter (my handle is @Shades_Corvid). The following is pretty much a copy paste from Twitter with some refinement and expansion.It would be great to see LGBT+ characters in the up coming new Star Trek series or any future movies but first I think you need to answer "What does it mean to be LGBT+ in Star Trek".Of course Star Trek has many cultures but Star Fleet would clearly be both the baseline as this is where our Pool of Characters usually comes from there. Given the known tenets of both Star Fleet and its creator this would be our ideal accepting society where LGBT+ is normal and understood.

So next is how will we see or establish LGBT+ characters in Star Fleet? Lesbian and gay characters are easy, not that hard to slip it on conversation, having someone's partner as part of the crew or living on board the ship or seeing a conversation communication with the same sex love one.Bisexual gets a little harder, you have to show history or establish it or be patient as the character goes through relationships. Of course an immediate solution would to have the character in a poly-relationship that include both genders but carries a bit of a stereotype with it. That might want to be avoided but it also can be used to show positive representation of a poly which could be an added bonus; things to consider.

Now, trans* can be a bit more challenging; specially to have the audience know. How do you establish a character as trans* in a society that a) accepts them b) has the technology to perfectly help them transition? Why are these issues? Well general speaking trans* characters have to be outed so we know as an audience but outing is a negative action.I can't see Star Fleet officers outing and how would they even know (besides medical personnel)?So I have some thoughts to establish trans* characters in Star Trek's Star Fleet!Trans* Character 1) A character who uses Non-gender pronouns, most likely a bigender, gender fluid, androgynous or non-gender identifying person.Trans* Character 2) A transgender character uses different pronouns when referring to certain parts of their past.
Trans* Character 3a) Gender fluid character who is usually one gender on duty and the other when off duty.

Trans* Character 3b) or Gender fluid character who switches each episode and sometimes during.Now a Gender Fluid character would probably need visual cue(s) for the audience along with an actor that can deliver this difference in presence and again crew be seamless in correct pronoun use.Trans* Character 4) A transgender character who never physically transition, happy as is. Crew still ok and seemless in pronoun usf.Trans* Character 5) A transgender character who is reverted to pre-transition form due to accident. This concept is more an episode(s) and restoring them needs to be treated as a real issue that needs to be correct for one's health. Could be a lot to explore and deal with here. Crew still uses correct pronouns still.That's all the ideas I have about that for now so let's jump back to general Star Trek with LGBT+ for a moment and wrap this up. Gender identity can even be explored with interesting uses of the holodeck or interacting with other cultures as well. Also if Star Fleet being our ideal LGBT+ accepting culture then LGBT+ causes, phobia, etc can be explored with the other cultures in Star Trek.Final Note: Of course LGBT+ Star Trek Characters need to include People of Color as well.